Italian Industry Experience on Small Satellite Missions
- Paper number
IAC-07-B4.1.04
- Author
Mr. Giuseppe Danilo Morea, Carlo Gavazzi Space S.p.A., Italy
- Coauthor
Mr. Paolo Sabatini, Carlo Gavazzi Space, Italy
- Year
2007
- Abstract
This paper presents the on-going programs in Carlo Gavazzi Space (CGS) for design and development of spacecraft for different kind of missions. Starting from the success of the two satellites SAFIR I and II and then of the first MITA platform mission, CGS has acquired a consolidated experience in Satellite System Design and of Prime Contractor in Satellite programmes. After thirteen years since the first SAFIR launch, Carlo Gavazzi Space experience has swept from micro satellite like RUBIN (30 kg mass and 300x300x300 mm) to SAR-Lupe satellite (770 kg mass and 4000x3000x2000 mm). Many kind of missions has been served from telecommunication like SAFIR and RUBIN to Scientific like MITA and AGILE to Remote Sensing like SAR-Lupe and ARGO. Many of the satellite program described in this paper have already been launched and have already successfully finished their missions, AGILE is planned to be launched in March 2007 and ARGO early in 2009. The common elements to these program is the low mission cost and short development plan. MITA is the Italian Space Agency (ASI) standard platform for small satellite-based missions, completely developed by Carlo Gavazzi Space as Prime Contractor. The first MITA mission was successfully launched on July 2000. The aim of the project was to develop a low cost, modular and flexible platform, 300 kg class, to support Low Earth Orbit (LEO) missions. It could support many different payloads for scientific, technological, Earth observation and communication missions. CGS is always working for the evolution of this platform and its subsystems. The second MITA mission will be AGILE. It’s the only European mission entirely devoted to high-energy astrophysics studies. It’s a gamma ray and hard x-ray observatory to survey the celestial sphere and to identify the Gamma Ray bursts and unidentified sources, galactic sources, diffuse galactic and extragalactic gamma-ray emissions. It could help understand some astrophysics phenomena like explosions, compact stars, massive black holes and gamma-rays energetic bursts reaching the Earth from remote regions of the Universe. Its detector is made by a team of Italian scientists but the exploitation will be opened to international scientific community. SAR LUPE is one of the biggest European programs for Earth Observation. It's a constellation of 5 satellites, developed for the German Ministry for Defence, aiming at acquiring high-resolution images for reconnaissance purposes. The first satellite has been successfully launched in December 2006.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-B4.1.04.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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